Butler Middle community breaks ground for new school building

The new Butler Middle School building has been a community effort from the start.

At the Sept. 8 groundbreaking ceremony, students and parents wielded shovels alongside the school's principal, Canyons District board members and other local dignitaries. After all, it was the community who was responsible for approving the June 2010 bond that is now funding the project.

"We want to make sure they're involved every step of the way," Canyons spokesperson Jennifer Toomer-Cook said. "We're grateful for their support."

Butler Middle's new building will be the first the Canyons District has built since becoming an independent school district, which is a landmark accomplishment for them, Principal Marsha Morgan said. Construction may be completed as early as the end of next school year--slightly ahead of schedule--but classes will start there in fall of 2013 as planned, she said.

"It's fabulous," Morgan said. "It's quite contemporary-looking. It will be very light and open."

The new building will be more energy-efficient and feature air conditioning, better wiring for new technology, "houses" that keep grade levels together, and much more. The school's street address will not change.

Despite all the excitement over getting a new building, the old one will be missed.

"It's a grand old building," Morgan said. "So many of our kids had parents and grandparents went there."

The challenge will be for the school to stay in the "old world," so to speak, in terms of their traditions and values, while moving on with the 21st century education that the new building will allow them to have, she said.

Butler is only one of many building and renovation projects to come, as the average age of Canyons' buildings is 40 years, and many are in great need of repair or replacement, Toomer-Cook said.